Do you remember years ago, when the United States launched the War on Terror and we suddenly had Republicans and their media cohorts asking, “why do you hate America?” anytime someone questioned something being done in the name of this ill defined “war”? Perhaps you’re too young to recall it, but I certainly do. Another popular line intended to stifle debate and shut down the discussion was that any criticism of the US policy would “embolden the enemy,” which prompted John Oliver when he was a Daily Show correspondent to cry out, “they’re just so damned emboldenable!”
Now I don’t really consider myself a patriot, even though I served in the Army and went to war in the Middle East on behalf of the United States. I volunteered to join the Army, they paid me and I agreed to do what they asked for that compensation. I’m sure I had my own opinions about the war, but I remember not putting much stock in them and just doing my job. I admire the United States and I’m glad I was born here vs. somewhere else, and I think the long running experiment in self governing is a fascinating attempt at forging a collective society that at least in principle, strives to form a more perfect union. I think we’ve made progress as a nation in many areas and the systems of checks and balances, with the three equal branches of government are all pretty ingenious. In short, I respect what we’re trying to do here and generally think we’re better off for it and should work within the framework of the rules we’ve established and keep on tinkering when we find areas where we’re falling short of the goal of promoting the general welfare.
Along comes Donald Trump, who is obscenely ignorant of how the grand experiment in representative democracy works, and really has no tolerance for it. The ways in which he has violated all the political norms have been discussed at length, but I’m going to focus instead on something much more objective and to the specific point of this post: Trump hates America, so his supporters must as well.
The Constitution of the United States give Congress the implied power to oversee the Executive Branch. James Madison himself, often described as the Father of the Constitution, wrote the philosophical underpinnings for this system of checks in balance as necessary to establish “subordinate distributions of power, where the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner that each may be a check on the other”. The legislature, not the President or the Executive Branch, is authorized to:
- appropriate funds
- raise and support armies
- provide for and maintain a navy
- declare war
- provide for organizing and calling forth the Militia
- regulate interstate and foreign commerce
- establish post offices and post roads
- advise and consent on treaties and presidential nominations (Senate)
- impeach (House) and try (Senate) the President, Vice President, and civil officers for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
Reinforcing these powers is Congress’s broad authority “to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof”.
So there is nothing more uniquely American than the power of Congress to conduct oversight, yet Donald Trump during his time as President has refused to cooperate in any way with oversight, refusing to allow officials from the Executive Branch to come before Congress, refusing to comply with legal subpoenas for documents, firing independent Inspector Generals who conduct oversight, among just a few means of obstruction off the top of my head. Trump went so far with his disregard for the Constitution that he suffered the ultimate disgrace for a President, and was impeached for his abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump hates America, so his supporters must as well.
The Constitution prohibits the President from receiving income other than his salary. It’s right in Article II which lays out the job of President:
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
So what’s an emolument anyway?
- Payment for an office or employment; compensation.
- The profit arising from office or employment; that which is received as a compensation for services, or which is annexed to the possession of office, as salary, fees, and perquisites.
- Profit; advantage; gain in general; that which promotes the good of any person or thing.
It’s money, and the President shall not receive any from the United States or any individual states while he’s President other than his salary. There’s also a foreign emoluments clause, but I’ll stick with just the domestic one that Trump has given the middle finger to. During his tenure as President, by his direction, he has forced the US taxpayer, that’s me and you Faithful Reader, to spend millions of dollars at Trump properties. He has literally taken the taxes you and I pay, and put them in his pocket. Trump has taken over $1,000,000 from the US taxpayer by charging Secret Service for room rentals at his Bedminster, New Jersey club while it was closed for the pandemic! Trump is in direct violation of the Constitution. Trump hates America, so his supporters must as well.
I could go on because the list of Trump’s egregious violations of everything America is supposed to stand for is long and distinguished, but I’ve provided two examples that objectively and indisputably exemplify his disdain for the United States, yet over 40% of Americans approve of him and the job he’s allegedly doing as President. I could try to give these Americans the benefit of the doubt; to suggest that they don’t know Trump is using the Constitution as toilet paper and flouting his hatred for our system of government in quite public ways. But I won’t. Because they do know, or they should know, because if you claim to love America, you need to have some basic understanding of what it’s about. But they don’t; they just love Trump. And Trump hates America, so his supporters must as well.
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